


Senza Misura

by cosmic_llin



Category: Seraphina - Rachel Hartman
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Getting Together, Polyamory, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:16:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8350630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: Five ways Glisselda touches Seraphina.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ambyr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambyr/gifts).



Seraphina and Glisselda went back to their harpsichord lessons. 

They’d had the difficult conversation – the two of them and Lucian – and it hadn’t actually been as difficult as Seraphina had feared. She felt ready to explore all the possibilities before her, and Lucian and Selda were only too happy to let her. The result was that she and Lucian were still together, and it was still a secret, but not from Selda any longer, which made Seraphina’s heart feel light.

And she and Selda were courting. Or at least, as much as they could be while they were both so busy. Selda had insisted on starting their lessons again, if only so that they could be sure of actually seeing each other once in a while.

Seraphina had spent the best part of an hour trying to help Selda with a particularly tricky couple of bars, but Selda’s heart didn’t seem to be in it – her fingers strayed from the keys to catch Seraphina’s, her leg brushed against her. Seraphina’s stomach fluttered, but she tried to be serious.

‘Glisselda,’ she said sternly. ‘This is a harpsichord lesson, not an… assignation!’

‘It’s a harpsichord _pretext_ ,’ said Selda, cheerfully. ‘Play me something? I’m bored of hammering away at it, but I could listen to you all day.’

Without waiting for an answer, she slid off the bench and stood behind Seraphina, sweeping her hair aside to kiss the back of her neck. Seraphina melted against her for a moment, then straightened. Selda kept her arms wrapped around Seraphina’s shoulders, her warm breath by Seraphina’s ear.

She began to play.

* * *

Selda was the first person in Seraphina’s life who had touched her the way she did – casually, warmly, as if it was a reasonable thing to do. She had done it right from the start. A quick pat of the hand, a squeeze of the shoulder. The day that Selda had reached out to pick up a stray eyelash from Seraphina’s cheek was burned into her memory.

‘Wait,’ she’d said, her hand gentle on Seraphina’s arm. ‘Just a moment, let me get that…’

And then she’d leaned in close, so close that Seraphina could feel her warm, sweet breath, and then her finger was on Seraphina’s face, a moment’s light pressure, then gone. She stayed close for a moment, smiled.

‘All done!’ she said, and stepped back.

It was almost dizzying.

But Seraphina had managed, back then, to put it swiftly to the back of her mind. Selda was the same with everyone. She walked arm in arm with Millie all day long. It didn’t mean anything. How could it? And there was enough else happening that she’d been almost able to forget about it.

* * *

They touched in all sorts of new ways, now. That first surprising kiss, that moment of revelation, had been too full of other things for her to really appreciate it as just a kiss. After the conversation, after they’d decided that this was something they wanted to try, they’d had their real first kiss.

It was at the end of a long day. Glisselda had been in meetings for hours, and her shoulders were slumped, her eyes tired, when she knocked on Seraphina’s door.

‘You look exhausted!’ Seraphina gasped. ‘Come in, sit. What can I get you?’

Selda shook her head. ‘Nothing. I just wanted to be here with you. I’ve been queening all day, and before I sleep, I just want a little while to be Selda.’

She flopped down on the couch and pulled Seraphina down with her, arranging them both so that she could lie with her head on Seraphina’s shoulder.

‘Tell me things,’ she said. ‘Something delightful. Something that’s nothing to do with any damn protocols or negotiations.’

Seraphina thought for a moment.

‘I read something the other day,’ she said. ‘Some of the scholars down at the university discovered that cows produce more milk if you play music to them.’

‘Really?’

‘Really. They think it might depend on the style. They’re experimenting further.’

‘Maybe that’s what you can do,’ said Selda, ‘if you ever get sick of being a court composer. Just go and sit in a field and play the flute for a bunch of cows.’

‘I don’t know,’ Seraphina said thoughtfully, ‘I think cows might prefer the oud. It seems more like their sort of instrument.’

Selda giggled. ‘You really are wonderful,’ she said, half-teasingly.

Reacting to compliments was still new territory. Seraphina blushed right down to her toes. ‘ _You’re_ wonderf…’ she began to reply, but she stopped, suddenly breathless, as Selda’s face drew level with hers.

They closed the space between them slowly, and the kiss was cautious, a little uncertain. Their lips brushed together so gently that they barely touched at all, a brief quaver of contact like the shortest, softest note she could breathe on her flute. There were four more bars of waiting silence before Seraphina leaned in again and kissed Glisselda for a long, ardent semibreve, and then there was no more counting, no more thinking, only warm mouths and hands and breath, and motion, and fabric sliding against skin.

* * *

It was something to get used to, being physically appreciated. And it was different with Selda, too. Lucian liked her body, but he was a little shy about it. Selda never was. One memorable night, Selda watched her undress with a delighted grin, lying on her front on the bed, chin on her hands.

‘Mmmmm, look at you!’ she said. ‘I could eat you up.’

Seraphina tried not to look too pleased as she pulled her chemise over her head.

‘Come here, lie down with me,’ Selda said.

In the lamplight, her hands and mouth danced across Seraphina’s skin, leaving bright trails behind them like sparklers against the night sky. Selda kissed a line down from Seraphina’s throat, between her breasts, along her stomach until she met the band of scales that circled her waist like a belt.

‘Stop!’ Seraphina gasped.

Selda stopped, looked up.

‘It’s just… they’re sharp,’ Seraphina explained, blushing. ‘I don’t want you to cut your mouth. It’s not…’

‘I’ll be careful,’ Selda promised. ‘Can I?’

‘All right,’ said Seraphina, even though her heart was hammering suddenly.

Selda kissed softly down the shimmering scales, following the direction they lay. Seraphina could hardly feel it – her scales weren’t very sensitive – but the sight of Selda’s head bent over her, her golden curls falling around her face, made something twist pleasantly inside her.

‘I won’t keep touching them, if you don’t like it,’ Selda said, when she lifted her head. ‘But they’re so beautiful. You’re so beautiful.’

‘I think… I think I like it,’ said Seraphina. ‘But check again next time, in case I change my mind?’

‘Your wish is my command,’ said Selda.

She stroked the scales again with one lazy hand, while her kisses moved downwards.

* * *

‘I’m going to do your hair nicely,’ Selda announced late one evening, when the three of them had finally retreated to her rooms.

Seraphina was sitting with her back against Glisselda and her feet in Lucian’s lap, copying some sheet music while the former read a novel and the latter wrote in his journal.

‘Which of us are you addressing?’ asked Lucian.

‘I’m talking to Phina, you absolute bobbin,’ said Selda amiably. ‘Phina, dear heart, may I do your hair?’

‘She’s “dear heart” and I’m an absolute bobbin? Charming.’

‘Sad but true,’ said Seraphina, giving him a little wink.

Selda was already manoeuvring her into position.

‘Not that I’m complaining,’ Seraphina said, ‘but is there a reason for this?’

‘You need to learn some smarter styles for when we have elegant parties,’ said Selda. ‘And I wanted to play with your hair.’

Lucian snorted. Seraphina sat quietly while Selda drew the comb through her hair, teasing out the tangles and smoothing it so that it lay straight down against her back. She closed her eyes and her breathing slowed, in time with the rippling strokes of the comb.

Selda parted her hair down the centre, then moved the two halves aside to kiss Seraphina’s bare shoulder blade before dividing the hair into smaller sections. Seraphina sat quietly as Selda worked, as she gently tugged and curled and pinned, sometimes talking about whatever came into her head, sometimes as quiet as Seraphina herself. It took a while, but there was no hurry, and at last it was done.

Seraphina looked in the mirror. Her hair was a confection, a ridiculous mop of braids and puffs and beaded coils. But it was… nice. And Selda’s expression behind her was delighted. Seraphina grinned back.

‘Happy?’ Selda asked.

Seraphina looked at her shining eyes, and at Lucian’s reflection in the mirror, still quietly writing, the ghost of a smile on his face. She took Selda’s hand, and squeezed it.

‘Happy,’ she said.


End file.
